->''"I don't have an accent; I'm from England. This is just how words sound when they're pronounced properly."''-->-- '''Creator/JimmyCarr'''

The tendency of English characters in American works to speak with upper-class accents (the academic term is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation Received Pronunciation]]; more colloquially, it's called the Queen's English or BBC English) even when played by actual Brits, who may well "posh up" their accent. It's a case of BritainIsOnlyLondon but even more so. It's like Britain Is Only Mayfair (a very high-class area of London).

This trope is about Hollywood thinking RP is the ''only'' {{British Accent|s}}, or that it's the only one [[SmartPeopleSpeakTheQueensEnglish the educated English use]] while everyone else talks like they had a Cockney jammed down their throats.

To contrast, the trope ''is'' often lamented by Britons who speak one of myriad other accents available and rarely get recognition, and can fuel stereotypes and people assuming there's a (nonexistent) 'British Accent'. As the page quote suggests, this might stem largely from the fact that many people think any 'non-rhotic' accent (where the 'r' is pronounced 'aa' as opposed to 'arr' in words like ''car'' and ''guard'') is English (Estuary accent, as a result, is often confused with RP itself). In reality, both the UK and the USA have their fair share of both rhotic and non-rhotic accents to go around.

On the other hand, this trope is heavily justified in England itself. If someone mentions a "correct" pronunciation or if they have "no accent", they do mean RP, which is both relatively "posh" and the formal "standard", also known as "Newsreader English". This is similar to how Americans say they have "no accent" when they are actually referring to Lower Midwestern US pronunciation. Only so long ago, people paid for "elocution" lessons to learn to speak "properly", and actors from all over the UK were encouraged to lose their natural regional accents in favour of RP - for example, Creator/PatrickStewart is a [[OopNorth Yorkshireman]] by birth, but speaks like, well, Creator/PatrickStewart. It should be mentioned, though, that modern RP is significantly less posh than the standard 'English' accent you will hear on American TV. The accent in question tends to be tied to a Private or Grammar School education, and it is entirely possible to identify students of particular schools in a city or region by their pronunciation.

A RunningGag among Britons (and somewhat TruthInTelevision) is that Americans will always assume any British accent other than the posh 1950s one is Australian[[note]] And to add to the confusion, a posh Australian accent sounds very similar to a posh English one.[[/note]]. Somewhat forgiveable with Estuary English, but completely bizarre when applied to OopNorth. Referenced in, among other things, ''Series/TopGear''. The QuintessentialBritishGentleman probably speaks this way.

Also consider that Europeans often learn this variety in school, especially at university, where RP is the standard. In other countries, like in Latin American ones, [[EaglelandOsmosis for obvious reasons]], learn American English, and others, like those from the Sinosphere (China, Japan, South Korea, etc.) [[GratuitousEnglish can't decide which one is the right one to teach.]] Interestingly, American English is more popular in Israel despite (or maybe because of) the British Mandate.

----!!Examples:

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* The English dub for ''Anime/YuGiOh'' [[AccentAdaptation gave Bakura a Very British accent]] as a cultural counterpart of his very polite speech patterns in the Japanese script.** ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' (made and voice-acted by [[LittleKuriboh a Brit]]) parodies it to hell and back by giving him lines like "Cor blimey! That was a smashing manoeuvre! Good show, chaps!" and "Lashings of hot ginger beer for everyone! ...I'm British, you know."* Surfaces in the original dub of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' as the accent used by ''Minako'' when speaking English. {{Justified}} as, in the anime, she ''did'' live in London for a while...[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]* ''Recap/AsterixInBritain'' has every single Briton talk like this, complete with expressions like "goodness gracious", "jolly good fellow" and "StiffUpperLip". This is particularly notable in the English translation, to distinguish them from the Gauls. (In the original French version, much of the distinction is created by having them speak French with English syntax.)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* Creator/KeiraKnightley in most of her movies. Not so much in RealLife. This makes it ''extremely'' jarring to hear her speak in an interview for the first time.* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' example: when Hicox is getting briefed for his mission, they all sound so English it hurts. Then you suddenly recognize [[AustinPowers Dr. Evil]] talking, and you realize that everyone in the room is a FakeBrit. Sort of TruthInTelevision -- there are still people in the UK who talk that way, they're just few and far between (see StephenFry for a famous example outside the Royal Family). Fifty years ago, even more people talked like that, and whilst the common soldier would sound far more ordinary, the top brass would be more likely to be made up of the upper classes.* As was pointed out in an episode of ''Series/{{QI}}'', the classical English pilot of the movies talks in this fashion because the actors who played them were almost invariably upper class fellows like David Niven. In RealLife, the RAF of WorldWarII drew most of their pilots from the middle and lower classes, but ask anyone to do an impression of an RAF pilot and they're practically guaranteed to attempt a Received Pronunciation "Tally-ho." 1/6 of the RAF's actual pilots were from the British Commonwealth (including India) and occupied and neutral countries such as Poland and Ireland (respectively) and so would have sounded (GASP) foreign. * SelenaGomez in ''Film/MonteCarlo'' when she's playing an American character pretending to be a different, British character, taken to an extreme when [[OohMeAccentsSlipping she momentarily forgets to do the accent]] and tries to retroactively make up for it. Also, the British character Gomez's character is pretending to be, [[ActingForTwo also played by Gomez]], but justified in that she is a posh heiress and her accent is more convincing than the American's.* The first half of ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'', where the difference is made stronger due to a juxtaposition of 'proper' and Cockney.* Creator/RichardEGrant's super-posh accent in most of his films (e.g. as [[Film/WithnailAndI Withnail]]) stems from his childhood in colonial Swaziland speaking exaggeratedly upper-class "period English," overlaid with drama-school RP.* Field Marshall UsefulNotes/BernardLawMontgomery in ''Film/{{Patton}}''. Patton even mockingly imitates him in one scene.* Chris Egan's ridiculously poshed-up accent in ''Film/LettersToJuliet'' (Egan is Australian by the way). Even more noticeable when he's speaking with Vanessa Redgrave, whose accent is clearly what he was going for but doesn't quite make it.* William Moseley in Walden Media's ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' films speaks on a completely different level of English-ness than his fellow cast members (including his own siblings). With his few lines in ''Film/VoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' he still manages to out-Brit the rest of the cast. Funnily enough Richard Dempsey who played the same character in the BBC adaptations of the books did exactly the same thing.* English actor Burn Gorman does such a terrible attempt at a "British" accent in ''Film/PacificRim'', to contrast, listen to his normal accent playing Owen in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''.* One of character actor Creator/TerryThomas' trademarks was his very British RP accent. He is quite possibly the trope codifier; most people that pretend a RP accent these days are doing an impression of him.* ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' attempts to explain why Xavier (who is American in the comics) has a Received Pronunciation accent. He is half-British, half-American (or alternately, he's fully British, but his family moved to the United States before World War II broke out in 1939), and his speech pattern was influenced by his posh English mother. It was later reinforced when he studied at the University of Oxford.* Angel in the ''Film/WingCommander'' movie. Creator/SaffronBurrows tried a French accent for her first scene or two but quickly [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent gave it up as a bad go]].* In the 2015 film adaptation of ''Literature/FarFromTheMaddingCrowd'', the Belgian actor who plays Gabriel Oak does a creditable job at RP English, but can't quite conjure up the rural West Country accent the character really should have.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' uses a wide variety of accents: searats TalkLikeAPirate, moles are country bumpkins ("burr aye, zurr" - based on UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry accent - the double r is to emphasise that it is rhotic), and hares use the "tally ho, wot wot"-type of speech (based on the WW2 RAF no less). Scottish accents show up in later books.* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWho|ExpandedUniverse'' book "The Pirate Loop" the Doctor and Martha meet a group of Badger-headed pirates, most of whom speak in an English -specifically Southampton- accent.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* All the candidates of ''Series/OneHundredGreatestBritons''. * ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}'': The TropeNamer is Adele [=DeWitt=], who is played by English actress Olivia Williams, but with a poshed-up accent. Under the influence of a drug, she says "Still you have to admit, I am... very British.".-->[[CrowningMomentOfFunny "I cahn't say hahd 'r's!"]]* Peyton in ''Series/CSINewYork''* Averted with Daphne in ''{{Series/Frasier}}'', who speaks with a Mancunian accent. Or rather, what is ''supposed'' to be a Mancunian accent. Averted with almost every English character in ''Frasier'', though Daphne's family suffer a greater accent-drift than she does, making you wonder if they're [[LampshadeHanging doing it on purpose]].* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' has the suave terrorist Sark, a young English gentlemen who's insanely cool under pressure, always polite and always has an English quip ready at any time. And unlike most examples on this page portrayed by non-English actors, David Anders ''nails'' the accent to the point where he even fooled native ears.* ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'': Giles and Wesley and well pretty much any watcher really. Also found in ''Series/{{Angel}}''. At least for Giles, it's eventually made clear that the accent is something of a put-on for the character as well as the actor. Wesley's accent, however, gets less posh the more time he spends in America and he is able to gradually phase out what Americans expect to hear of an English accent.** Band Candy shows that Giles' real accent is similar (though exaggerated) to his actor's real accent. He just does the more posh one to fit in more with the other Watchers and distance himself from his dodgy past.** Even vampires such as Spike (or Spoik) and Drusilla play up to stereotypes with their silly accents terribly done. But because they are basically Victorian nutters, it works.*** Much like Giles, Spike's accent is shown in a flashback to be entirely fake and that he had a different accent (also English, but much different and somewhat more realistic) before he decided to use the one he currently uses to sound more badass. James Marsters (Spike) actually based it on the real accent of Anthony Stewart Head (Giles). It is ''terrible'', as is Drusilla's.**** Spike's kind of the reverse of Giles. Giles has, depending on interpretation, either poshed-up his accent to fit in as a Watcher or *reverted* to posh after affecting a lower-class accent in his rebellious youth. Spike started out posh, but has deliberately moved his accent downmarket and stayed there. Then there's Drusilla, whose strangled Cockney tones ARE supposed to be her natural accent, but who put on a posh one when she first met human-Spike, presumably to put him at ease: ironically, this "fake" accent is far more convincing than her "real" Cockney one. Yet both are awful to the true English ear.** The Watchers Council being entirely full of posh dudes in tweed who speak like some variation upon Rex Harrison. Even the surly 'lower class' henchmen have this ludicrous 'pip pip cheerio God Save the Queen!' dialogue.** Depends also on the writer - some simply write amusing scenarios and get the actors to flesh it out. Creator/JossWhedon went to a renowned English independent school so has direct experience of such prim, tweedy characters. Others (such as Jane Espenson in particular) attempt to introduce British "slang" and end up sounded daft because they are unfamiliar with this type of dialogue.** Averted for all of roughly two seconds in "Hush" with Giles' Liverpudlian girlfriend Olivia.* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'': In another Joss Whedon show, the only British people there speak in a Cockney accent. One episode involves [[SummerGlau River Tam]] faking it really, really badly. Seeing as she's a CloudCuckooLander, however, this could very well be in character.* In yet another Creator/JossWhedon-produced show, ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' both averts this trope and plays it straight with the two British leads: Fitz is played by a Glaswegian actor with a moderately strong Scottish accent, while Simmons speaks in the more typical RP of a British character in a US show, despite the actress playing her originating from [[OopNorth Sheffield]]. In later episodes this trope begins to be averted a little with Simmons too, whose Southern-ish RP accent slips gradually towards more Northern English pronunciation (which seems to be her real accent, to judge from interviews). This is particularly the case when she's speaking quickly or with high emotion, but is increasingly just used for the character's ordinary conversation.** Mostly averted by the second season, with Simmons now settled on her actress' natural accent and Lance Hunter, who uses the same accent his actor has, a more common, non-post Londoner accent. Supporting characters Anne Weaver and Sunil Bakshi play it slightly straighter; Weaver has her actress' natural accent but is far more Stoic in speech, making it sound more high class, while Bakshi's is played straight.* Also Dr Helen Magnus from ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}''. Justified because she is very old so it's her real accent, not a put-on.* Marcus from ''Series/BabylonFive'', in an attempt to sound Arthurian.* ''Series/{{Bones}}'':** Anyone aside the main cast in "Yanks in the U.K."** Averted later on by Mr Nigel Murrey who speaks in his own Midlands accent throughout his appearances on the show.* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' -- It just goes to show the power of the trope that in [[http://tv.gawker.com/5527780/jon-stewart-mocks-the-laughable-tameness-of-british-political-scandals this]] bit on UK politics, Jon Stewart completes UsefulNotes/GordonBrown's sentences in a posh accent. Brown is ''Scottish''.** For those of us who can't access the video or aren't familiar with UsefulNotes/GordonBrown, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LJKVK_CqxE#t=1m6s this]] is Brown's real accent. Compare that to the Very British accent if you can.* Higgins in ''Series/MagnumPI.''* In one episode of ''MurderSheWrote'' we have a father-daughter pair where the daughter is a social-climbing gold digger who has taught herself to speak like a lady, where the father still speaks like a workingman.* Wee Britain in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' is an entire neighborhood of Very British People, with the only possible exception being Rita's uncle, who is played by a Canadian and sounds more Australian than British. Theron as Rita's attempt at an English accent are cringeworthy.** One story arc involves Tobias pretending to be a British nanny (the characters and narrator all lampshade the fact that it's a blatant rip-off of ''MrsDoubtfire''). His accent and attempt at slang are ''terrible.'' However, this fits in with the rest of his PaperThinDisguise; all the other characters immediately know it's Tobias and only pretend to be convinced so he'll do their chores.* A new arrival in ''Series/{{Colditz}}'' is suspected of being a spy precisely because he's such a stereotype. [[spoiler:Nope, he's just really, really posh.]]-->'''Pat:''' I didn't realise anyone was that ''English'' these days.\\'''Player:''' You don't think he's... ''too'' English, do you? [...] Seems to me he's a German's idea of what an Englishman looks like.* ''Series/TopGear'': As mentioned above, during their visit to Reno a couple of drunken casino-goers "helping" James May with a slot machine ask him if he's Australian because of his accent. Then again, they are ''very'' drunk, since one of them also asks him if he's Music/JohnLennon.* An episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' has Monica and Phoebe getting annoyed when a friend of theirs returns from living in England with a "ridiculously fake British accent". Their attempts to imitate her result in this trope. Ironically when the friend actually appears, her accent is quite decent.* DI Richard Poole in ''Series/DeathInParadise'' speaks with a Received Pronunciation accent that marks him as wildly out-of-place on the Caribbean island where the show is set. None of the other British characters speak like this, so it seems to be Poole's natural way of speaking, which fits with his very proper and straight-laced personality.* Averted with Alfred Pennyworth in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', who speaks with an East London Cockney accent instead of the Received Pronunciation heard in most adaptations.* A very good non-British variant - call this I Am Very Northeastern American - comes from George Feeny, the high-school principal on the classic TGIF sitcom ''BoyMeetsWorld''. It's educated Bostonian - the voice actor William Daniels picked up when portraying JohnAdams in ''{{1776}}'' - but it sounded very peculiar in a modern American context, especially on a program where all the other characters' accents (except for the very {{Joisey}} [[TheMafia Mafia]]-like delinquents, of course) were either Californian or vaguely Midwestern. Equally oddly, Daniels was born in Brooklyn, New York! [[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Music/ProfessorElemental.* Music/MrBTheGentlemanRhymer* The English Vocaloid Oliver.* The lead singer of Music/TheStreets sings in a very local British accent.* Music/TheBeatles did this a few times too.** "Good Morning, Good Morning" from ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''--> ''It's time for tea and "Meet the Wife"'' [[note]] "Meet the Wife" was a BBC sitcom at the time. A reference everybody outside the U.K. missed. [[/note]]** "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" from ''Music/MagicalMysteryTour'' are both about locations in Liverpool.*** "I Am The Walrus"--> ''Sitting in an English garden, waiting for the sun''--> ''If the sun don't come, come and get a tan from waiting for the English rain''* Music/PJHarvey's ''Music/WhiteChalk'' marked a notable shift in the singer's sound. She abandoned her AlternativeRock origins and made an album completely in the style of traditional British FolkMusic and chamber music. The title itself refers to the white chalk cliffs in the beach side of South England. Normally she didn't refer to her native country at all in her lyrics. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinball]]* In ''Pinball/{{Diner}},'' Babs (a caricature of MargaretThatcher) speaks with a very proper British accent.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]* Sir Allen Garfield, one of the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance forerunners, who we must stress is from ''Greater'' London England.* Wrestling/WilliamRegal poshed up his Lancashire accent when he was first in Wrestling/{{WWE}} as his "character" was meant to be a proper British upper class twit and would naturally have a posh accent. He dropped this around 2004-ish and has used his normal accent ever since.* 2003 saw the arrival of another London, Greater London, England resident, Nigel [=McGuinness=], to the USA independent circuit and with it, [[CheapHeat several insults the fans really didn't understand]] but threw back at him anyway in Wrestling/RingOfHonor.* Wrestling/KatarinaWaters aka Katie Lea Burchill/Winter has an RP accent but did posh herself up considerably when she was in WWE and then again in Wrestling/{{TNA}}. Any non-kayfabe interviews will show a big difference between her real accent and the one she uses in promos. Possibly justified because in professional wrestling, the wrestlers are taught to speak slowly in promos and enunciate so that the audience can hear them clearly. Katie Lea's "real" accent is actually very Germanic, as she was raised in Germany. In a Wrestling/ColtCabana podcast she relates that to English ears she sounds German but she gets away with it in America.* Hade Vansen, "leader" of the British Militia in WWC, though it's easy to put yourself over as "very" British when "[[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose the rest]]" of said militia isn't even.* Wrestling/BookerT and Sharmell gave themselves over the top British accents when they became King Booker and Queen Sharmell and started acting like bumbling upper class twits.* Wrestling/{{Layla}} El is British but has lived in America for a long time so her accent has faded quite a bit but she did posh herself up when she hooked up with William Regal as his "Queen". She did a similar thing when she formed Wrestling/LayCool as a listen to one of her promos from then and a regular interview will show a huge difference.[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]* There are basically two accents in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': Ork (cockney/TalkLikeAPirate) and everyone else (posh). The video games occasionally add others (''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII'' memorably features a ViolentGlaswegian Baneblade).[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]* ''Franchise/MetalGear'' usually plays this straight where English characters have English accents, with varying levels of justification. Major Zero is an ex-SAS man from Exeter and Liquid Snake is... well, [[LargeHam Liquid]] [[EvilBrit Snake]]. Slightly less justified is the supposedly Mancunian Strangelove. The only exception is the Praying Mantis advert narrator.* The Icarus from ''VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}}'' is an obvious 'stereotypical RAF pilot' reference and speaks in an extremely posh upper class accent (in contrast to the rest of the Yeomen, who mostly speak with various lower-class accents from both Britain and the USA).* Venus Dare from ''VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' is one of the few characters in the game not to have an American accent, and she speaks in incredibly plummy RP.* The translations of the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' games generally avert this, featuring Irish, Scottish, RP and other accents in [=NPCs=] and [=PCs=] alike.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* The {{Lets Play}}er ''LetsPlay/ElectricalBeast'', made famous by ''WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}}'', speaks in a seemingly exaggerated cockney accent.* A RunningGag in TheStinger of the first two episodes of ''WebAnimation/DeclineOfVideoGaming'' that counts as a TakeThatUs. At one point Dan remarks "We're so incredibly English!"* Film/JamesBond's superior, M, as portrayed in [[http://www.gosuperego.com/podcast-episode-3-3/ this episode]] of sketch-comedy podcast Superego: "Just one more thing, Bond: How British am I?"-->"You're the tickity-tock of Big Ben's cock, sir!"* Film reviewer MikeJ on Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, whose opening {{catchphrase}} is "Hello, I'm a British person!"[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': ZigZaggingTrope - First, Pip has this accent. In "The Snuke," the Queen has one too, but her underlings don't. They also give UsefulNotes/GordonBrown a London accent that sounds a bit like their version of Russell Crowe even though Brown has a fairly pronounced Glaswegian (i.e. 'Scots', think Creator/BillyConnoly) accent. Finally, they don't give RichardDawkins this accent even though he ''does'' have one. (When asked about his portrayal in RealLife, Dawkins responded that they could have at least hired an actual British actor.)* On ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' Lawrence Fletcher, the dad, has this, but Ferb seems not to, though as a child that has spent his formative years in the United States he can reasonably not have one.* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' where Pinky assembles the world leaders, Prime Minister UsefulNotes/JohnMajor has a stereotypical English accent instead of the South London accent he has in real life.* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'': Extremely noticeable with Gordon in later episodes. He is even based on the same model as the Flying Scotsman, an actual steam locomotive that was manufactured in Britain.* One of the Sports WesternAnimation/{{Popples}}, Big Kick, talks with a British accent.* ''WesternAnimation/AxeCop''.--> '''Axe Cop:''' "What's wrong with your voice?"--> '''Isabella M:''' "Nothing. Everyone from London, England ''has'' to talk like this."[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]* Inverted by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Thomas,_1st_Viscount_Tonypandy George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy]], who, when he was the Speaker of the House of Commons, said in his native Welsh lilt, "There are many accents in this house. I sometimes wish I had one myself."* British actor Creator/TerryThomas made a career of it.* Creator/JohnCleese is a modern day example. He is often cast to portray an English gentleman and even looks like it when he wears a bowler hat and umbrella. [[/folder]]